


[interlude]

by elentari7



Series: Enchantments and Desolations [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: (sorry), (the author was feeling self-indulgent), Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Attempted story games, Bahorel is a little shit, Combeferre is also a nerd, Cosette is amused, Courfeyrac being Courfeyrac, Enjolras doesn't believe in vacations, F/M, Feuilly may be the only sane one left, Fluff, Gen, Grantaire too, Jehan is overly Romantic, Joly & Bossuet are overly cute, M/M, Marius being dragged along, Marius is overly anxious, Multi, Musichetta & Jehan & R being huge nerds, Musichetta is very Sienese, OWLs results, Photographic Evidence, Postcards, Quote Wars, Summer Fun!, Wizards are bad at understanding some fairly basic things, classic literature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:40:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6184570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elentari7/pseuds/elentari7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being the selected highlights of the group correspondence of a certain cadre of Hogwarts students over the second summer after its foundation; recorded as transcribed on Protean parchment or delivered via Geminian picture frame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[interlude]

**Author's Note:**

> Update: because the formatting for this is a mess on mobile, have [ a pdf](http://www.mediafire.com/download/3qy9xni1a91c1rz/interlude.pdf).

June                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

  ** _at the top of the page, neatly:_**                          Is this working?

 

 ** _in a script with considerably more flourishes:_** We’re literally right next to each other, M, lean over and see.

 

Hello to you too boys. <3 ~Cosette

 

\----------

 

 ** _on the back of the page, in Musichetta’s sharp script:_** MN - Once upon a time there was a talking cat who lived in an enchanted forest.

 

\----------

 

 **_from Courfeyrac, a photograph from above of Marius, surrounded by foliage and clinging to a tree branch. His attention seems to go back and forth between blocking the camera and scrambling for balance. On the back of the photograph:_ ** Shenanigans!

 

July                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

 

 **_from Prouvaire, a postcard of the_ ** [ **_Forum Romanum_ ** ](http://www.mediafire.com/view/uogb0wu3ikp53xg/forum.jpg) **_reading:_ **

_ad hoc se_  
_Romanus Graiusque et barbarus induperator_  
_erexit, causas discriminis atque laboris_  
_inde habuit: tanto maior famae sitis est quam_  
_uirtutis …_  
_… titulique cupido_  
_haesuri saxis cinerum custodibus, ad quae_  
_discutienda ualent sterilis mala robora fici…_ Juvenal, X.137-45.

For this does the general,  
be he Roman, Greek, barbarian,  
rouse himself--from this has he motivation  
for danger and toil; so much greater is thirst  
for glory than for virtue…  
... and the desire for a distinguished inscription  
on one’s gravestone, which the rough strength  
of a barren fig tree suffices to crack.

~ _Jehan Prouvaire_

 

 **_messy and taking up far too much space:_ ** JP, are we having a Juvenal party? He gets me. _Difficile est saturam_ non _scribere._ I.30 ~R

 

 _Nam si tibi sidera cessant, / nil faciet longi mensura incognita nervi._ If your stars go against you, the fantastic size of your cock will get you precisely nowhere. IX.33. Top that, bitches. -MN

 

\----------

 

 **_on the back of the page, below “once upon a time”:_ **  Sooooo…? Then what? ~Eagle

 

Yeah, don’t leave us hanging! :D ~Joly

 

 ** _unsigned, but very obviously Courfeyrac:_** I AM ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT

 

...No, idiots, you’re supposed to continue the story. -MN

 

\----------

 

 **_following five semi-legible lines containing a subjective comparison of various beverages, a limerick, and at least seven puns:_ ** R you’re going to use up the whole scroll

 

Wow I didn’t think Grantaire Rants were translatable to the written word.

 

Shall we never escape them?.

 

 ** _in tiny print:_** I am everywhere. 

 

\----------

 

 **_on the back of the page_ ** **:** But I don’t know the story? ~Joly

 

Dio in cielo, have none of you played this game???

 

\----------

 

 **_at the end of an apparently stressful day:_ ** No one ever let Bossuet help with gardening.

 

Four splinters, four gnome bites, three rabbit-holes stepped into, one garden pond fallen into, and one poison something-or-other rash. Beat that for shenanigans. ~Eagle

 

\----------

 

**_from Courfeyrac, a photograph. In it, he is shirtless, muddy, for some reason dripping wet, wearing something that may be furry or may be plant matter draped over his shoulders, arms, and head, and striking various poses. Marius, whose entire torso is lobster-colored with sunburn, keeps trying without success to hide out of frame._ **

 

\----------

 

 **_from Prouvaire, a postcard of_ ** [ **_Florence’s skyline_ ** ](http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/Florence-skyline-388.jpg) **_reading:_ **

_quanto la cosa è più perfetta,_  
_più senta il bene, e così la doglienza._ Dante, Inferno VI.106-08

The more perfect a thing is,  
the more it feels pleasure and, likewise, pain.

~ _Jehan Prouvaire_

 

 ** _in reply:_**                                         Perfect? Are we talking about Florence here…? Because, “Rejoice, Florence, at being so great that your wingspan covers land and sea / and your name extends throughout hell!” Inf. XXVI ~R

 

 ** _with emphatic underlines added:_** _"La gente nuova e i sùbiti guadagni /_ _orgoglio_ _e_ _dismisura_ _han generata, / Fiorenza, in te, sì che tu già ten piagni."_ (Inf. XVI.73-75) New inhabitants and sudden gains have spawned such pride and and excess, Florence, in you, that you already bewail it -MN

 **_bigger and more enthusiastic:_ ** _superbia, invidia e avarizia sono / le tre faville c'hanno i cuori accesi._ (Inf. VI. 73-75) Pride, envy, and greed are the three sparks that’ve kindled their hearts -MN

 **_with excess exclamation points:_ **   _ïo, che al divino da l'umano, / a l'etterno dal tempo era venuto, / e di Fiorenza in popol giusto e sano, / di che stupor dovea esser compiuto!_ (Par. XXXI.37-40) How amazed must I have been, who’d come from the human to the divine, from time to eternity, and from Florence to a people just and sane!!! -MN

 

You two are so contrary. :P ~JP

 

No, I’m Sienese. -MN

 

I’m just an ass. ~R

 

 ** _in Bahorel’s block print:_**               The fuck are you all on about.

 

\----------

 

 **_on the back of the page_ ** **:** So you’re just supposed to add a sentence?

 

Yes.

 

Any sentence?

      

Any sentence.

 

AND THEN THE DRAGON ATE EVERYONE, THE END. -Bahorel

That was fun, let’s do another.

 

I give up.

 

\----------

 

 **_in the margins of a Grantaire Rant (™) about butterflies being valued over moths: a delicately detailed sketch of a_ ** [ **_garden tiger moth_ ** ](http://ukmoths.org.uk/site/assets/files/16057/gardentiger2sf.jpg) **_. A moment after being completed, the drawing begins to flutter its wings. Labelled:_ ** Arctia caja

 

 **_a caption, in a different hand:_ ** Ferre, we know it’s you.

 

 **_straggling up the edge of the page:_ ** Neeeeeeeerd

 

\----------

 

 **_on the back of the page, in Marius’ print:_ **  I don’t understand. Where did the dragon come from?

 

August                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

 **_from Enjolras, a clipping from the Daily Prophet, carefully folded so that both sides can be read, with multiple sentences underlined in red, whose headline blares:_ ** NEW QUIDDITCH STADIUM SITE CONFIRMED  CENTAURS' CLAIM TO "HUNTING GROUND" INVALID

 

 **_in reply:_ ** No rest for the righteous, eh ange? ~R

We all get the Prophet, you know.

 

Firstly, no, not all of us. Secondly, it’s a better use of common space than multiple paragraphs’ worth of puns.

 

Outrage over people stealing other people’s land is a better use of common space? Really, what were you expecting on this one?

 

From you? approximately this behavior. If you’ve nothing to contribute, stop it.

 

Thanks E, I’m owling you some comments. Keep me updated? -Feuilly

 

Of course.

 

Hey, puns are NEVER a waste of time! ~ Eagle 

 

\----------

 

 ** _from Prouvaire, a postcard from Athens depicting the_**[ ** _Kerameikos_**](http://antiquity.mtholyoke.edu/sites/default/files/u2/kerameikos.jpg) [**_cemeteries_**](http://www.bugbog.com/wp-content/uploads/athens-keramikos-cemetary-700.jpg) ** _, and reading:_**

 _Mónos theôn gàr Thánatos ou dôrōn erâi,_  
_oút’án ti thúōn, oút’epispéndōn ánois,_  
_ou bômós estin, oúde paiōnízetai,_  
_mónou dè Peithò daimónōn apostateî._ Aeschylus, fragment (Niobe) 147

Alone among the gods, Death craves no gifts;  
Neither sacrifice nor libation avail;  
He has no altars, heeds no hymns of praise;  
From him alone of all divine powers Persuasion stands aloof.

_~Jehan Prouvaire_

 

 **_in reply:_ **  Merlin’s stretchy suspenders, Prouvaire, write something _cheerful._

 

\----------

 

**_from Cosette, an arrangement of pressed flowers from her garden._ **

 

\----------

 

 **_scrawled_ ** **:**      guys guys I think I may have invented a charm for turning people purp **[illegible inkblot]** Don’t listen to Courf, he **[erratic slash]** I promised no _pictures,_ this **[writing devolves into scribbles and trails off the edge of the page]**

 

 **_some time later:_       **...Are you two still alive? ~Eagle

    

Is Marius still purple? ~Cosette

 

\----------

 

**_from Musichetta, a (Muggle) photograph of herself in a crowded medieval street wearing a bright grin and a worn-looking, triangularly-folded, blue-red-and-white scarf with what looks like a leopard on it._ **

 

 **_in response_ ** _:_ It’s not moving, why is it not moving, you’re just _staring_ at me, this is creepy.

 

\----------

 

 **_too early for morning post:_ ** Do you know when OWLs results are supposed to arrive? -Marius

 

Today? -Feuilly

 

Yes but _when_??

 

Not five in the morning, probably.

 

Hey, you’re awake too! ~Joly

 

I have work in a couple hours.

...Did you even go to sleep last night?

 

I tried to help him meditate around midnight? ~Eagle

I think there’s too much coffee in him now

 

 ** _at a reasonable hour:_**       How did people do? ~Cosette

 

Jolllly can’t pick up the quill right now, he’s busy planning out the NEWT-path to St. Mungo’s. :) ~Eagle

 

Congrats, _dottore._ <3

 

I did okay. -Feuilly

 

You got eleven Os, didn’t you.

 

Eight. Three were Es.

 

 **_blotchy with excitement:_ **  I PASSED! -Marius

 

 ** _blocky and precise:_** Me too. -Ép

 

 **_Courfeyrac’s loopy script:_ ** Ponine! You’re alive!!!

 

Duh?

 

Well how were we to know, you weren’t _talking_ to usssss

 

What was I gonna say to all this? “You’re all crazy”?

 

Oh, we know.

 

OKAY WE’RE WASTING PARCHMENT Potions Charms Transfig Defense Herbology who will be in which of my classes? ~Joly

**[his words are nearly blotted out by people squeezing their initials between the letters of the relevant classes. The only ones readily distinguishable are Enjolras’, which are in red ink.]**

 

Ancient Runes, anyone? Marius? ~C.

 

Do you intend to continue contemplating the heavens, Ferre? ~JP

 

Astronomy’s on the list.

 

Who’s being cool and taking Muggle Studies + HoM? -MN

**[Feuilly and Enjolras initial next to both]**

 

 **_Bahorel’s block print:_ **        I do not understand you people.

 

How about you R?

Dueling partners in Defense? :D ~Jolllly

 ** _some time later:_**         R?

 

 ----------

 

**Author's Note:**

> First off, my apologies for the formatting. I hope it is not too painful to read. (If it is, please tell me to fix it! If not, comments still appreciated. :)) Secondly, I'm working on their next year at Hogwarts but seem to have more of the end written than the beginning, so it probably won't be up until next month. Hope this little bit of fun tides people over until then!
> 
> Now for the overabundance of notes:
> 
> ~I know some of the guys aren't as talkative here as the rest, but I promise they're around. Feuilly's just working most of the time, and Éponine is hiding these communications from her family but checks them at least twice a day, and Enjolras and Combeferre are just reticent but are writing each other individually whenever they see/think of something the other ought to know about. Which is approximately twice a week. 
> 
> ~I'm...sorry about all the quote wars. (The translations are all mine, so be gentle with me.) It was a thought that popped into my head based on the canonical fact that Jehan knows Latin, Italian, and Greek, but ONLY reads Juvenal, Dante, and Aeschylus, and then near the end of part 1 I got very fond of R and Musichetta being able to banter over classic Muggle literature, and it all accumulated... 
> 
> ~R quotes one of Juvenal's most commonly known lines, "[in times like these] it's difficult *not* to write satire." Not the most original of choices, but it's so him. 
> 
> ~(Musichetta's quote wins by a mile, though.) 
> 
> ~Siena and Florence were historically powerful rivals vying for dominance in the same region, and because of a key military defeat Florence went on to become the merchant and banking capital of half of Italy and the cradle of the Renaissance, while Siena is still essentially a medieval hilltop city. Musichetta's Still-Haven't-Forgiven-the-Florentines attitude here is lighthearted, but it is never not fun to read Dante excoriating his hometown. (Dude's got something bad to say about every city in Italy, but mostly his hometown.) And she has definitely referred to Florence as Disneyland Italy a few times in her life. 
> 
> ~(For the record, Florence is Amazing and Important. [But](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duccio) [so](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Martini) [is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banca_Monte_dei_Paschi_di_Siena) [Siena](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena). ;) ) 
> 
> ~The Kerameikos at Athens was (in ancient times) the potters' district (hence the name) and the place where the big roads to the harbor went through the city walls. There were some elaborate cemeteries outside the walls (since you couldn't bury your dead *inside* the city). It's gorgeous and a nicely un-crowded site to visit, if you ever get the opportunity!
> 
> ~The scarf Musichetta's wearing in her stationary (*gasp*) Muggle photo is a [Pantera fazzoletto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/9/9f/Contrada_della_Pantera-Stemma.PNG). I figure if she's in Siena in mid-August she and her folks would dive right into the Palio fervor on behalf of whatever [contrada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrade_of_Siena) their family lives in :)
> 
> ~...I don't know how there ended up being so much Siena in this thing. I think Musichetta's enabling me.


End file.
